


Greenery

by Charlotte_Lancer



Series: Permanently Unfinished [7]
Category: The Grand Tour (TV) RPF, Top Gear (UK) RPF
Genre: Huddling For Warmth, Lost in the Woods, M/M, Not Beta Read, improvised camping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21799141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlotte_Lancer/pseuds/Charlotte_Lancer
Summary: Richard and James get lost in the woods.For @hamstxr
Relationships: Richard Hammond/James May
Series: Permanently Unfinished [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/818400
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by https://hamstxr.tumblr.com/

_ New England really is beautiful in autumn _ , thought Richard,  _ but it would be even more beautiful from a car _ . Unfortunately, he and James were on foot, lost somewhere in Maine’s vast network of walking trails. Not for the first time, Richard wished that he’d stayed at the hotel and taken Jeremy up on his offer of drinks and room service. Instead, he was here- wherever here was- wandering around the woods in what he was sure was  _ several  _ circles by now, trying to figure out what path would take them back to where they had started.

“I think we’ve been on that path before,” James said, pointing to the left half of the forked trail, “look at that bench.”

“James, I’m sure whoever built these paths bought the same type of bench for all of them. And the trees near where we came in were definitely not pine trees.” The entire left trail seemed to be surrounded by pines, forming a tall green canopy over the pavement.

“How can you possibly remember what breed of tree we walked past?”

“Because they were  _ yellow _ , James!” They’d parked at a public lot, and the trail leading off of it had had many different types of tree, turning all shades of orange and yellow and red, but not a single speck of green to marr the fiery effect.

“Shit.” James looked around again, and stared down the right-hand path as if a parking lot was suddenly going to spring up if he glared hard enough.

Richard pulled out the map they had taken from the visitor center they’d stopped at the day before, looking to see if he could find any place that three trails met.

He could. Unfortunately, he could find many of them, and since he wasn’t sure what direction they were facing, he couldn’t even begin to narrow down where they were. He put the map away.

“We’ve been walking for hours, now. It’s going to get dark soon.”

“I know.”

“And cold.”

“I  _ know _ , Hammond.” James’s voice sounded odd, and Richard turned to look at him.

_ Scared. That’s how he looks. Shit. _

“James…” he started, unsure of what to say. James would see right through any reassurances he tried to give, and the temperature really  _ was  _ starting to drop already, even with the sun still hanging on. He shivered, and brought his hands up to wrap around his arms. “C’mon,” he said, “Let’s try that trail on the right. It’s got to go somewhere, and even if it’s not where we parked maybe it will have some phone reception.” He tried not to think about how far it might be before it got there, and together they started walking down the narrow path.

………………………………………………………………………………………………….……..

After another hour of walking, the sun was nearly gone, and Richard was freezing. He was shivering so hard that the zipper of his windbreaker was rattling even as he stopped in place to pull his driving gloves out of the pockets.

James stopped beside him, giving him a questioning look.

“What? I’m cold!”

James shook his head. “Don’t put those on yet, you’ll just end up making your fingers colder by separating them. You need to warm them up first so the gloves have some heat to retain.” James reached out, taking one of Richard’s hands between his own and rubbing it between them. The friction warmed his hand quickly, and soon James let go, gesturing for Richard to put on the glove. 

“Thanks,” Richard said as James grabbed his other hand to repeat the process. His whole body felt warmer now that his hands weren’t frozen, one now warm in a glove and the other in James’ hands.

After another moment, James let go, and said, “It’s nearly seven. Jeremy and Andy will be looking for us soon, if they aren’t already.”

“Good.” Richard and James had planned to be back at the hotel well before dinner, and had said as much before they left. “I can barely see; we should stop before we end up off the trail.”

James nodded, and pointed forwards on the trail. “It looks like there’s a bench right up there. We can stop there and wait to be found.”

James sounded absolutely confident that someone  _ would  _ find them, but privately, Richard wasn’t so sure. They had no idea where they were, and Jeremy and Andy wouldn’t be able to give whoever went out to look for them any more information than ‘walking trail about 20 minutes from the hotel’. He refrained from voicing as much to James, however, remembering the other man’s earlier look of fear.

They sat close together on the bench, closer than James would have normally allowed, in an attempt to preserve as much heat as possible. Richard wasn’t sure exactly how cold it was- he hadn’t thought he’d need a thermometer on what was supposed to be a leisurely walk to see some foliage- but he would have guessed 4 celcius at the very highest.

James was slightly better off for the cold weather, having worn a thick sweater over a sleeved shirt, claiming that the comfort outweighed the drawbacks in performance, but Richard had opted for a running shirt and a light windbreaker, both of which were better suited for a mild London night than the cold and damp air that was assaulting them now.

At least the forecast had assured them that there would be absolutely no more rain that night, but the possible low of -1 was definitely concerning.

Richard heard a rustling noise from beside him, and looked over to see James pulling what appeared to be a large sheet of foil from a plastic packet.

“Mylar blanket,” James said, noticing Richard’s curious look. “It should cover both of us, and I’ve got another one we sit on.”

“Where did you get mylar blankets?” They hadn’t been apart for any significant length of time the entire trip, certainly not long enough for James to go off and find a camping supplies store.

“One of the gas stations was selling them, and they might be useful for pranking Jeremy somehow. I also got a lighter with a Garfield knock-off printed on it, which I can’t imagine we’ll need, and a fake-gem-covered can of bear spray, which I really  _ hope  _ we won’t end up needing.”

Richard couldn’t help but look around at the thought of bears, even though the fading light meant that any animal more than a few feet away would be rendered effectively invisible. Still, there didn’t  _ seem _ to be anything around, at least going by the silence of the night, and the little he could see, so he relaxed slightly as he stood to help James cover the bench with the first of the blankets.

Once the blanket was as secure as they could get it, they settled on the bench again, pressed even closer together to fit under the second mylar cover. James wrapped an arm around Richard’s shoulders, keeping Richard pressed firmly against his side, and in turn Richard leaned his head onto James and closed his eyes in an attempt to make them adjust faster to the darkness.

It wasn’t the most comfortable Richard had ever been, but James was warm against his side, and soon enough Richard felt himself starting to drift off, his head still resting on James plush sweater.


	2. Chapter 2

Jeremy didn’t bother to knock on the door to Andy’s room, instead swiping the spare key and entering quickly. “Hey Andy, have you heard from James or Richard?”

Andy didn’t bother to look up from his laptop as he answered. “They went to go do some nature walk that James wanted to see.”

“It’s 7:30, they were supposed to be back for dinner.” It wasn’t exactly unheard of for James to be late, but a phone call or a text could usually be expected of him if he was going to be this late. And Jeremy couldn’t remember Richard  _ ever  _ being late for dinner.

Andy glanced at his watch, then up at Jeremy, and set his laptop beside him on the bed. “What time were they planning on being back?”

“They just said ‘dinner’, but neither of them are answering their phones, and according to the girl at the front desk that walk should only take an hour or two. They’ve been gone for 5!”

Andy stood and pulled out his phone, finally looking worried to a degree that Jeremy considered acceptable.

“Right. I’m calling the police. You don’t happen to remember what they were wearing, do you?”

Jeremy considered for a moment, trying to picture how they looked when they said they were heading out. “Er, James was dressed like my granddad and Richard had on jogging clothes.” He paused, trying to remember more. “Blue. They both had on blue.”

“You try both of their phones again while I call the police. And then we’ll go see if we can find their cars.”

……………………………………………………..

40 minutes later, Jeremy, Andy, and every sober member of the production crew were at the entrance to the trail, each armed with one of the giant flashlights that Andy had sent one of the camera operators to procure. A search team pulled in next to them, each with their own sets of equipment, including everything from whistles to valve masks.

Once everyone was standing in the lot, one of the search officials began giving instructions, as another went around and retuned all of their radios to the same frequency. They officials were practiced and efficient, and it wasn’t a full 5 minutes before the first group had set off into the woods, map and glowing chalk in hand.

…………………………………………...

Richard woke to the sound of leaves rustling behind him. Beside him James was also awake, pulling the cap off of the bear spray and turning towards the noise.

It was too dark to see anything now- the night was too cloudy for the stars to provide any light- so Richard took out his phone, careful not to make any noise as he switched on the flashlight. The noise didn’t hadn’t been very loud- Richard assumed he was about to see a rabbit, or maybe a fox- but it was best to be careful anyway. He raised the beam over the back of the bench at the same time that James raised the bear spray, aiming at the source of the noise.

“Oh,” James said, stopping short from pressing the trigger of the spray.

There was a small deer standing in the weak beam of the flashlight, staring frozen at the source of light. Richard shut off the light, and after a moment he heard the sound of the deer running away, crunching the leaves as it went.

James laughed softly as he put away the canister, a panicked edge creeping into the sound.

“James?” Richard asked, concerned. He hovered his hand over James’ shoulder, unsure if the touch would be welcome or not. James was silent now, but he was shaking against Richard despite the fact that it had become quite hot under the mylar sheets. “James, what’s-” He was cut off by James turning suddenly and practically throwing himself against Richard. James clung onto him, burying his head in Richard’s neck. James was still shaking, and now with the wetness of James’ eyes pressed against his skin, Richard recognized it for sobbing rather than shivering. He wrapped his arms around James, pulling him closer and rubbing his hands in small circles on James’ back.

“We’re alright, James,” Richard whispered, trying to comfort his friend, “Was just a little deer. Probably it’s first year on it’s own. Just a cute little thing, yeah?” James had mostly stopped shaking, but Richard could still feel tears on his shoulder. He turned his head down, and pressed a kiss to James’ hair, the same was he had done countless times for his daughters. “We’re gonna be ok, alright? I promise you.”

James lifted his head slightly, and took a steadying breath, but made no move to break away from the embrace. “I thought it was a bear. I thought we were going to die, and it was just a fucking deer! God, Richard, I want to go home.” James voice broke off into a sob at the end, and he dropped his face back into the crook of Richard’s shoulder once again, crying quietly.

Richard leaned his own head down, tucking it against James, and held him close, wishing he could somehow make things better.

They stayed like that for a long time, both of them tired, scared, and desperate for the comfort that the closeness provided.


End file.
